I am going from memory here.
Although Lauren was underage at the time, from what I remeber she could drive the car down the street and ran Max over which was intentional I think.
From what I remember from Abi driving when she ran over the dog, she was all over the place - she isn't then going to be able to drive all the way to the common smoothly and without anyone noticing she's a bit of a maniac on top of the fact she'll be edgy about just committing murder.